“We want to be meaningful and relevant in our clients’ lives,” Paulsen said. “There are moral and financial implications to the health and wealth issue because there is a direct correlation between the two.”
Both issues are also tied to age. There will be 1 billion people worldwide over the age of 60 by 2020. “Transamerica is launching an education and awareness program for our advisors to promote better financial and physical habits for their clients,” he said.
The way people age and retire is changing, affecting both health and finances, said Bruce Wolfe, executive director of the BlackRock Retirement Institute. “The three-stage life cycle we grew up with is becoming antiquated. Life has more phases. People will be entering and exiting education and the workforce numerous times. That means there will be more financial decisions to be made.”
According to Beth Brockland, the managing director of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, a not-for-profit network of financial services organizations, employers will be pushed to plan for employees’ financial health and not just their retirement savings.
“In turn, this provides an opportunity for financial advisors to work with employers,” Brockland said.
Marrying the concepts of health and wealth will be good for advisors, noted Crain. “We will be better advisors for doing it and we will keep more business. If we do traditional financial planning, we will lose a lot of business.”